You guide me and I'll guide you
by redheadleela
Summary: A different take on 'Playing with Fire' this is the sort of thing my brain make sup when I can't sleep. It's a story mainly based around Sara but all the others are in there. Rating may change
1. Default Chapter

Coma Dream

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI it belongs to Jerry Bruckenheimer

Spoilers: 'Playing with Fire' from Season 3

Author note: While I was waiting for Season 5 to hit the UK, I was re-watching every episode I could and because of this my weird mind started thinking lots of 'what ifs' and this is the result. So this story is basically a branch off from the episode 'playing with fire'. Sorry for such a short first chapter, reviews will make the second much longer. I'm dedicating this story to my coolest friend Lor because she always knows how to make me smile.

Sara stops and sighs, 'Never mind. He's busy.' She turns to go back to her lunch and in the DNA lab Greg turns to try to find the source of that burning plastic smell. At that moment, the source of the smell explodes. Shattered glass flies everywhere and Greg is catapulted out of the lab and lands on the floor of the corridor outside. Sara is thrown, by the force of the explosion into the wall but she had already started to duck for cover so both her hand and her abdomen smack off the corner of the wall. She sees Greg close his eyes in pain and she feels like doing the same but her brain has switched off and all that's left is survival instinct. Somehow she pulls herself to her feet and stumbles out of the crime lab-turned-mad house. Once outside she sits down on the side of the sidewalk feeling safe now. Grissom follows the gurney with Greg on it out of the lab and as the doors of the ambulance shut he looks around disorientated and sees Nick come running, coughing out of the main doors and the same moment as Catherine and Warrick pull up in their car.

"What the hell happened!" Catherine asked as her and Warrick stared at the smoke rising from the lab. Grissom didn't seem to be with them as he stared worriedly at the building so Nick told the others what he knew. Suddenly Grissom rejoined the rest of the world with a bump. He spun round and said, "Where's Sara?" The rest of the team looked around, until they spotted her curled over herself on the pavement. They all ran to her, "Sara!"

"Huh?" She looked up wearing an expression of confusion

"Are you okay, hun?"

"I'm fine. Cleanup's gonna be something. We should get started." The team exchanged worried looks, there was something in the way she spoke which told them she wasn't fine at all. She knew that of course, because of the pain spreading across her stomach. Warrick crouched down straight in front of her and laid his hand on hers,

"Sara? Look straight at me." He looked into her usually sparkling brown eyes and saw that they were distant and unfocussed. "Griss, she needs to see a medic! Right now!" As he said this Nick and Catherine saw her eyes' shut and her head loll backwards.

"Watch out!" Cath yelled. Warrick tightened his grip on her hand, Nick rushed behind her and between the two of them, they lowered her to the ground.

"Grissom! Go and get a medic!" Nick got out his flashlight and shined it in her eye, with no response. Catherine felt for a pulse and found one though not as strong as she'd hoped to find. "Erm, guys?" Warrick's voice was full of fear and uncertainty.

Catherine and Nick looked up to see Warrick drawing back Sara's T-shirt to reveal a large yellow and purple bruise starting to form.

"Oh, that cannot be good"


	2. Chapter 2

AN: sorry it took me so long to update I was ill before my Easter holidays so I have had a lot of work to catch up on. Enjoy, please feel free to leave a review, constructive criticism welcome.

Sara woke up in an unfamiliar bed and looked around for clues as to where she was. The last thing she remembered was the lab exploding, and if she were in the middle of all that then surely she would be in some kind of pain. As she rolled over her eyes met with Greg's, "Hey, I was wondering when you'd wake up." Greg's voice was pained but his relief in seeing Sara conscious was obvious.

"Hey yourself. How long was I out?"

"I'm not sure I've not been awake long myself."

Sara looked up as the door opened and Warrick and Catherine walked in, looked only at Greg and walked straight towards him.

"Hey! You're awake!" Warrick looked exhausted and Catherine's eyes were rimmed with red.

"Yeah and look who else is." Sara smiled at Greg's obvious attempt to get the attention away from him. Unfortunately, it didn't work, their eyes looked straight through Sara.

"Greg? What do you mean? Catherine's voice was laced with concern.

"I mean Sara!" Greg pointed at her as well. This all seemed very funny, 'How can I see her and these guys can't?'

"Greg! That's not funny man!"

"What?"

"Sara's in surgery right now! So don't joke about it, okay?"

Greg's brow creased and he tried to convince himself it was just a dream, which was working until Sara spoke to him.

"What! Why am I in surgery?" Warrick and Catherine didn't hear a word of it, "Ask them!"

"Guys? Why is Sara in surgery?"

"She hit her stomach really hard in the explosion. She was bleeding internally. She's lost a lot of blood."

Greg turned to look at Sara who had hidden her face in her hair and all Greg could do is watch as Sara walked past Warrick and out the open door. As Sara brushed past, Warrick shivered and muttered, "I thought these places were supposed to be warm."

Greg was in shock, 'If Sara is in surgery how come I just saw her?' "Erm, I'm just gonna get some rest, guys."

"Okay that sounds like a good idea." Catherine and Warrick left him to sleep.

Sara looked around the corridor, holding back tears; if this was disturbing for Greg, it was mind-blowing for Sara.

"I cannot be dead! That would be so un-cool! How come Greg could see me but Warrick and Cath couldn't?"

"Wow! You look lost!"

Sara looked down at her waist and saw a little blonde girl, who she guessed was about 4 or 5, looking up at her and smiling kindly.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Ruth, what's your name?"

"I'm Sara. How come you can see me?"


	3. do you love me honey?

AN: Sorry again for the wait and I will update again tonight to appease any of you that are still reading. Reviews make the world spin backwards! (Just the way I like it!)

The little girl smiled and answered simply, "Because I'm like you."

Sara slid to the floor, curled up and hugged her knees. "I just wanna be myself again, not all floaty!" She whispered as a single tear slid down her left, even paler than usual cheek.

"All you have to do is find your body and if someone is in the room with the real you and the floaty you and they say that they love you then you'll go back. But you can't leave it too long or it won't work."

Sara gulped, "How long is too long?"

"It's different for everyone." The little girl suddenly looked sad, "Before you go back to your life… can you help me? Because I've been wandering round the hospital for a few days now… and I don't know how to get back"

"You're worried time's running out?" The little girl nodded, "Okay. What's your second name?"

"Anderson."

"And why are you here?"

The little girl giggled and replied, "I already told you that, it's because I'm like you!"

"No, I mean why are you in hospital?"

"Oh. I was in a car crash." Her eyes looked into the middle distance as if she was trying to remember something from a while ago.

"Okay, Sara wandered over to the nurse's station, feeling so much more confident now she had the purpose of protecting and helping this young girl. She accessed the database of patients and typed into the search box 'Anderson, Ruth' and she watched as a room number appeared and a floor number. Sara turned and saw Ruth as the light from a window flowed through her. It seemed to light her up from within but it made her skin glow as well; it also made her hair shine golden. "Right let's get you back!"

Sara and Ruth walked almost in silence apart from Ruth giggling at various sights that make small children giggle, and Sara was thinking. 'What if I get lost on my way back? What if I don't make it back in time? What if no-one says that they love me!'

"Someone will."

"Huh?"

"You're worried no-one will say that they love you, and I think that you must have someone who loves you, and if you're here then they will be too."

Sara stayed silent, and she prayed that this wise child was right.


	4. Short goodbyes

AN: This is the last instalment I hope you've enjoyed it and any reviews and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. Enjoy, gregorwarrick!

As they approached the end of the corridor with Ruth's room along it, Ruth stopped and she turned to Sara and hugged her around her knees. "Thank you! I hope you get back okay" and she offered Sara a smile as she turned and skipped down the corridor. Sara watched her go she could've sworn that she wasn't quite hitting the floor on each skip.

Sara tore her eyes away when she felt a strange tingling in her fingers and her toes, and as she looked down at her hands, she saw that her fingers were no longer visible. She didn't need to ask Ruth to figure out that this meant her time was running out.

Sara's thought's flickered about as she ran through the hospital corridors. Her thoughts flickered through her childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. She remembered old friends, old lovers and family members long gone. 'Oh my God! My life's flashing before my eyes!' She kept running but looked down to discover that half her arms and legs were gone. She rounded the corner as the vanishing act approached her shoulders and hips. She looked in the ajar door to her room and saw Grissom holding her pale lifeless hand, "Sara, I love you. You have to wake up." She gasped, Grissom said the exact phrase she needed to hear to get her life back and she'd missed it. Grissom brushed past her leaving her alone with herself in the room. She needed to think fast, her shoulders and stomach were fading. 'If Greg can hear and see me and Warrick could feel me then Nick should be able to sense me somehow!' "Nick! Nick!" Sara watched Nick run into the room looking at the Sara on the bed. His face fell as he realised Sara hadn't woken up. He moved to her side and held her hand Sara started crying quietly realising that her stomach was disappearing. 'So this is how it's gonna end with me watching myself on a hospital bed.' She looked down to see her chest disappear and she heard the life support machine change from its regular pattern into a monotonous drone. "Oh! I love you Nick! I love all you guys! Tell them that!"

Nick closed his eyes as tears began to fall, "I love you too Sara!"

Sara opened her eyes and blinked at the brightness of the light, and rolled over to discover Greg grinning at her, "I was wondering when you were gonna wake up."

"So you remember that? That means it happened."

"Yeah it happened. Just don't ask me to explain it!"

Sara sighed a deep sigh of relief it was so good to see Greg's smile.

Catherine walked in the room and greeted them both, "How are you feeling Sara?"

"I feel fine…" Her thoughts wandered to a small blonde guide. "Cath can you do me a big favour?"

"Sure, what do you need?"

"Can you fin the room of a little girl called Ruth Anderson and tell her Sara says thank you."

"Erm sure… will she understand it more than I do?"

"Yes she will."

Greg and Sara sat in silent contemplation until Catherine returned with a puzzled look on her face.

"Sara? I asked the nurse and she checked the database and there isn't a Ruth Anderson listed as a patient here, the only one they could find was in the morgue."

"Oh no! She didn't make it! Wait…how long has she been there?"

"About a week."

Sara sat silently for a while then murmured to herself, "We all need a visit from an angel sometimes."


End file.
